New 3D Visualization Shows the Shape of Distant Space Rock Ultima Thule

NASA scientists released a 3D render of the distant two-lobed space rock Ultima Thule on February 8 based on data collected from the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by the Kuiper Belt object on January 1. Objects in the Kuiper Belt are considered to be the “primordial” building blocks of the solar system, NASA says. Ultima Thule is a “contact binary” object that formed as smaller objects swirled in space. The scientists also noted that Ultima Thule’s red color is similar to that seen on the poles of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon. New Horizons – designed, built, and operated by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA – launched on January 19, 2006, and began a fly-by of Pluto on July 14, 2015. At 4 billion miles from Earth, Ultima Thule is the farthest object explored by a spacecraft. Ultima Thule is pronounced “ul-tim-ah too-lay.” Ultima is the larger body of the contact binary, and Thule is the smaller. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute via Storyful